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Site last updated:
January 10, 2012

TransLink Commission

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TransLink’s Proposal of 29 October 2009

TransLink applied to the Commission for approval to charge a $2.50 “Canada Line YVR Add Fare” starting January 1 2010 to passengers travelling between Bridgeport and Templeton Canada Line stations in either direction, in addition to the applicable zone fare.

Passengers must travel on this segment of the Canada Line to get to and from Sea Island, home to the neighbourhood of Burkeville and to Vancouver International Airport. An Add-Fare is an extra sum paid for one transit trip, and is an option already available on TransLink’s system, e.g. to upgrade a one-zone ticket to a two-zone.

Here is the TransLink application for the YVR Add Fare (a 2 page PDF file) and a Question and Answer paper (a 13-page pdf file) on TransLink’s application.

Starting in 2004, TransLink aimed to have air passengers pay extra for using the Canada Line (see the history at the bottom of this page) to fund part of its capital cost. Under its 2009 proposal, TransLink would exempt people who lived or worked on Sea Island, if they carried valid identification. All other passengers would pay the Add-Fare to travel onto or off Sea Island.. 

Commission’s Decision of 23 December 2009

After publicising TransLink’s application and seeking comments from the public through December 4 2009, the Commission considered its decision. Two particular concerns of the Commission were (1) the awkwardness of the “two-way-add-fare-with-exemptions” approach, with possibly significant costs for monitoring and enforcement and (2) that it was not targetted accurately enough at air travellers: airport greeters, well-wishers, day-trippers, sightseers and other non-air travellers on the Canada Line would also have to pay the Add-Fare.

Rather than approve TransLink’s application in its entirety, the Commission decided to approve a $5.00 fare premium, payable one-way (i.e. eastbound only) at the three stations on Sea Island, for cash fares (including those paid by credit card) only. This means that passengers needing to buy a ticket at a ticket vending machine at these three stations will be charged the $5.00 premium. Exempt from the premium are passengers travelling on FareSaver tickets (which can be bought in books of 10), monthly FareCards and U-Passes. Here is the Commission’s formal decision and reasons in Order 09-02 ( a 1.3MB 33-page pdf file) with a summary of the public input received.

Background on the Decision Process

On 23 October 2009 the Mayors’ Council approved supplementary fares (within a TransLink 10-year plan called Funding Stabilization). One of these was the proposed “Canada Line YVR Add Fare”. TransLink could not charge passengers this fare without the further approval of the Commission. TransLink applied for this on 29 October 2009. Here is a summary time-line diagram of the process (a one-page PDF file).

Under the SCBCTA Act, after at least 30 days for public comment, the Commission must weigh four considerations in its decision:

• maintain financial stability of TransLink;

• allow TransLink to provide planned services;

• encourage TransLink to minimize expenses; and

• keep fares as low as possible.

For further detail, here is an external link to section 223 of the SCBCTA Act.

History of the Canada Line YVR Add Fare

In 2004, TransLink proposed an Airport Special Zone Fare to help fund the Canada Line, then at the planning stage. The TransLink Board approved the new fare in 2004. The fare would:

• be levied for trips to and from Sea Island (on which Vancouver Airport sits) via an “add-fare”;

• target air passengers who would be receiving a significant benefit from the Canada Line – the alternatives being Taxi (then $24), Airporter (then $12) or Airport Parking;

• yield an estimated incremental ridership revenue to TransLink of $3.3M (in 2003 dollars) per annum, growing with ridership;

• be adjusted from time to time within a range of $2 to $4 (in 2003 dollars).

The above approval was given before the amending legislation of 2007 which created the Mayors’ Council and an appointed board of directors for TransLink.

In April 2009, before the Canada Line was put into service, TransLink asked the Commission to determine whether a YVR Add Fare was a decision of a previous board that did not require additional approval.  The Commission found that, as far as it was concerned, this was indeed the case (as detailed in Commission Order 09-01 of 30 April 2009).

Nonetheless TransLink, possibly acting with an abundance of caution, subsequently included the YVR Add Fare in the Funding Stabilization Supplement for approval by the Mayors’ Council, drawing it into a further approval process under the 2007 SCBCTA Act. While awaiting new approvals, the TransLink has not charged the YVR Add Fare to passengers since the Canada Line began operating.